boltonblue

30 years ago, went you to a store you had a reasonable expectation that you would go home with the item you purchased.
I'm finding that is clearly a practice of the past.
Our microwave died. Need to get another one.
What I'm finding is a lot of the stores just don't have inventory. Order it online and get March XX. or pick up in store on...

Toys R us is going, going almost gone. sears can't be far behind.
going to be a brave new world.

S2KRAY

We use Amazon prime for most of our purchases except for large appliances. Free shipping and no driving to a store. We do shop in our local beach town to support the merchants.

Lainey

Yes, stock on items of all types can be minimal. If I'm looking for something I may look in one or two places, then off to Amazon. I was in a craft store the other day looking for artist tape. I bought some there a while ago. This time they had only one choice and it just looked like masking tape. Back to Amazon. Admittedly, Amazon is often my first choice. I don't want to spend my time shopping.

TsukubaCody

You can walk into any Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Kohls, etc., and walk out with the microwave of your choosing today.

Zippy

Toys-R-Us died because of a leveraged buyout. While I agree that retail is having a crisis that it may not find its way out of. This was a case of greed.
Now, Sears, Macy's and the other mall "anchors" are having a real issue moving forward. Technology has brought them to their knees, and it seems that millennials are not fond of malls like that few generations that preceded them.

windhund116

Toys-R-Us was nearly an institution. Amazing...

dlq04

I went to Best Buy to get a pair of bookshelf speakers for my garage tv last week. They didn't have any of the ones that they listed at their website, so I then tried Target and Walmart, which didn't have anything and I came home empty handed. Good thing! It turns out there there was nothing wrong with the ones I had. For some reason they sounded like total crap last week and now they are working just fine. At least for now. But, your point about not carrying inventory was true - - - but that's probably because shelf speakers have been replaced with ear plugs.

freq

They're still fond of malls, they're just not there to buy anything.

Lovetodrive2000

My daughter (32) normally gets all her groceries delivered by Meijers.... Amazon for most other items..... has UberEats deliver dinner/lunch once or twice a week.....

Its rare that she goes to stores to shop anymore.